:I was also wondering about the effectiveness of the
: "air dam" that goes from the top of the windshield to the rack,
: supposedly to reduce drag, wind noise and other gremlins. Any experience
: with that?

I had a Saris rack on my old Mazda Protege that whistled like crazy, so I got the fairing and that fixed it. I have a Thule rack on my new Golf, and I added the fairing later and it helped reduce wind noise. Both cars had/have sunroofs, and a fairing is pretty much a must if you don't want a bunch of wind and noise directed down into the car.

Dean